Persecution against Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour is expanding to her defenders

In July 2014, when 16 years old Palestinian boy from East Jerusalem, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, was kidnapped and burned alive, it was a shock for the Arab Palestinian public. People felt that the atrocity was a result of constant anti-Arab incitement by Israel’s top politicians and mainstream media. They also felt that the Israeli police and courts are not very concerned to prevent or punish violence when the perpetrators are Jew and the victims are Arab. Arabs were protesting all over the country. Hundreds of Arab activists shared a profile picture on Facebook, designed like obituary, saying “I’m the next

“I am the next martyr” – protesting the killing of the innocents

martyr”. Its meaning was clear for everybody: while children are randomly kidnapped from their streets and murdered, any of us can be the next victim.

More than a year later, in October 2015, this very same profile picture on the Facebook page of poet Dareen Tatour was wrongly interpreted by Israeli stupid “intelligence” as a declaration that she is going to make a suicide attack. Her house was surrounded at a pre-dawn raid by a big force of Israeli police and border guards and she was arrested. In the first interrogation they told her that she wrote that she wants to be a martyr (“Shahida” in Arabic). Soon they understood their mistake, but they wouldn’t apologize and let their victim go free. They started digging deeper in her Facebook page and found a poem and some posts that they also maliciously misinterpreted, this time as “incitement”. So started the saga of “The Jewish State against Poet Dareen Tatour”, which is now a world famous example of Israel’s unjust persecution of Palestinian arts and the freedom of political protest.

From protesters to victims

Just like Dareen Tatour protested the fate of other victims and became a victim herself, now the state of Israel is turning against those people that protest the persecution of the poet.

A group of Jewish and Palestinian artists plan to stage a protest event in solidarity with Tatour in the Yaffa (Jaffa) “Arab-Hebrew Theater” on August 30th, before her trial is going to resume. They prepared a rich artistic program including reading from Tatour’s poetry and original works by other poets, and staged reading from the trial’s minutes. The full text of the invitation with the program is cited below as the last section of this post.

Today, Monday, August 21, Haaretz published (in Hebrew) a long news item titled “The Ministry of Culture requested the treasury to examine whether the Jaffa Theater violated the Nakba Law”. This is the beginning of a process, directly centered against the hosting of the solidarity event on August 30th. It aims to cut the budget of the theater and might even end with the theater having to pay destructive high fine of up to 3 million shekel.

The tail wagging the dog

The whole process shows how extremist elements are now driving “mainstream” Israeli politics and government institutions are mobilized by populist-racist politicians like Miri Regev to serve their anti-democratic agenda.

was selected for the event page (copied here) is an example of the worst kind of bloody propaganda. Till now the Facebook event of this counter-demonstration has 5 people signed as “attending” (and 15 “interested”), compared to 136 “going” (and 239 “interested”) for the solidarity event.

But Shai Glick is not alone. If he doesn’t have the public, he can mobilize the whole power of the state. On August 7 Israeli “mainstream” site “Maariv” reported (in Hebrew) that as a result of a complaint by Mr. Glick, a little known Knesset member from the governing Likud, Sharren Haskel, sent a concerned letter to Ms. Regev, the Culture minister, reporting the solidarity event, repeating Glick’ accusations and requesting the minister to “handle it”.

Hence comes the current initiative by minister Regev, demanding investigation by the ministry of finance which is responsible for the financing of theaters and has the authority to reduce or abolish funding or imposing fines.

The Nakba law

Everybody is somewhat perplexed by the whole process, as it is a new attempt to use new laws and procedures to squeeze freedom of expression. The common knowledge in Israel is that even as Palestinians are persecuted for anything or nothing, the freedom of expression for the Jewish population was more or less secure. Now the event in Yaffa may become a test case of the new laws and the old assumptions.

Regev and Mandelblit, changing the rules of the play to shut up theaters

The Knesset seems to be always busy passing new racist and anti-democratic laws, so much so that people relate to the “status quo” and tend to ignore these new laws, hoping that they will not be implemented. Specifically, the new “Nakba law”, which is the legal base of the investigation against the Yaffa theater, was almost ignored, as it mostly speaks about the denial of government funding. People were wondering are there any government funded institutions that actually commemorate the Palestinian Nakba?

But the so-called “Nakba law” is not only about commemorating the Nakba. It counts many possible offences that deserve denial of funds, including questioning the “Jewish democratic” nature of the state – i.e. opposing Jewish supremacy. And lately, in a new twist to the plot, the government’s attorney general agreed with Ms. Regev to hold theaters responsible not only to their own plays and programs but also to the contents of any event held in their premises.

In a detailed report in Haaretz (August 16, in Hebrew) about the consultations between Regev and Mandelblit, the attorney general, about the strengthening of political supervision of theaters, she is cited as saying: “Hear me well. I’m not ready to be laughed at. I have 20 complaints about the Yaffa Theater. They say that in the Yaffa Theater there are extreme organizations that call for boycott of Israel”. So all that Mr. Glick and his likes should do is write 20 letters, and they become the Ten Commandments for the minister.

“Al-Midan”, the Arabic theater from Haifa, was persecuted for similar reasons over the last two years and as of now is still closed. Now, with the new law, the Yaffa Theater might be the next martyr.

We need more solidarity and pressure in the near future

The last court session was held on Sunday, May 8. There was one witness for the prosecution – a policeman – Salman Amer – the one that got the material from Dareen’s computer and smartphone. Before the hearing we held a successful vigil outside the court. Probably the judge was pressed from the multitude of Dareen’s supporters – so she decided to hold the hearing behind closed doors.

You can read about the 8/5 vigil and hearing my reports (Hebrew and English) , a report by Jack Khouri in Haaretz (Hebrew and English) and a later report in “Local Call” (in Hebrew only) with more details from the courts protocol and about solidarity activities.

The court set a new schedule: the next hearing will be held only in 17/7 – and there are 5 more witnesses for the prosecution. Another hearing was scheduled for September 6 – so the defense case will not start until that date and is unlikely to end then. By that schedule Dareen is expected to stay in her detention and exile for more than a year even before the case will be decided…

This schedule forces us to concentrate now on an effort to, at least, “improve” the harsh conditions imposed on Dareen. Her lawyer, Abed Fahoum, promised that a special request to the court to bring back Dareen to Reineh – even if under house detention – will be placed with the Nazareth court early next week. When we get a date for the hearing I will publish it on the Free Dareen Tatour Facebook Page. But the best chance to get some relief for Dareen is in case that there will be concrete pressure on the prosecution – mostly by international public opinion and human rights organization.

I also wanted to mention that Dareen’s brother and his fiancée, which were appointed by the court to “guard” Dareen at her exile/detention in Tel Aviv, were forced to hire a special apartment for this purpose and had to stop their studies (both were post-graduate students of medical professions) and adjust their work schedule – with huge costs and disruption to their personal lives. Dareen is even more concerned to relieve them than to go back to her home.

Publicity and Solidarity

Dareen’s case received huge publicity in the Palestinian press – she became a symbol for hundreds of Palestinians that are arrested and persecuted for expressing their views on social media. Her case was prominently mentioned by Muhammad Barake, the head of the “Arab follow up committee”, in front of thousands of protesters in the “March of Return”, the commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba that was held this year in Wadi Al-Zubale, in Bir A-Sabe’ (Naqab) region, on May 12.

The general association of Palestinian writers issued a special declaration (in Arabic, May 15) in solidarity with Dareen, calling for her immediate release. The declaration calls for “solidarity action and the mobilization of all possible energies to pressure the occupation machine and force it to release the poet”. Sami Muhana, head of the association of Palestinian Arab writers in the 48 territories, also issued a denunciation in behalf of this association. Herak Haifa held a special poetry reading event on May 5, in solidarity with Dareen Tatour, with the participation of five young Palestinian poets.

In the Israeli press we succeeded to get about as far as one can go with a comprehensive article by Gideon Levy and Alex Levac in Haaretz (in Hebrew and English). But till now, in spite of repeated efforts, no Israeli writer, nor any Israeli Human Rights organization, showed any interest in this case. Please correct me if I missed something – I will be more than happy to publish any expression of solidarity from any side.

Activists of “Jewish Voice for Peace” held special protest in solidarity with Dareen in front of the Israeli consulates in New York and Philadelphia before the court hearing on May 8.

Pen International, in a declaration from April 25, condemning the arrest of Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal, related to Dareen’s case, saying: “PEN International is also concerned at reports that Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour is currently on trial for alleged ‘incitement to violence’. The organization is currently assessing the content of a poem and Facebook posts the poet, who is from Nazareth in Israel, wrote which are the basis of the charge.”

Sarah Shulman, and American novelist and academic, sent the following message of solidarity: “I am honored to offer open-hearted solidarity to the Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour and hope others will join me in supporting her quest for freedom to live and write according to her conscience.”

It is time that more poets, writers and all freedom loving people will make their voice heard for the freedom of Dareen Tatour, for freedom of the arts and freedom of expression, for the freedom of the Palestinian people and all the people in this small world.

I have a neighbor. He is a quiet man, working hard in construction and after work he would stay with his family. You rarely even see him in the neighborhood. One morning I saw him sitting in the street – he had a story to tell.

He is from Jenin. He married in Hallisa (our Haifa neighborhood) and came to live with his wife here. They are already married for some twenty years but he couldn’t get his papers right. As the occupation gets old, so do many of its victims. So, that night, my neighbor felt his heart was betraying him and hurried to the hospital. Apparently it was not that bad. After checking him and verifying that he was no dying, the doctors in the hospital called in the police, which, at 3:00 am, drove him to Jenin (some 45 km south east of Haifa) and threw him on the other side of the army block. In the morning he was already back in Hallisa, but didn’t go to work, so I had the chance to hear the story.

I wondered about the doctors. How the hell would they call the police to take the man in the middle of the night? Many healthy people would have a heart attack just to see the police at such an hour, to say nothing about being thrown away beyond the army lines in the middle of the night. My neighbor survived this experience – but probably the next time that he will feel his heart stuttering he will think twice before going to the hospital – so he actually may die from this harsh experience.

* * *

Today (6/6/2013) – as Adalah was opening a photo exhibition about the lives of victims of Israeli racist citizenship law – I learned that the doctors that called the police to take my neighbor were not alone. Apparently they were “just following orders” – or working according to the standard procedure in Israeli hospitals.

Fatma, the women that agreed to tell the attending public about her plight, was not expelled like my neighbor. She is a special case – she has a court order preventing her deportation. (Probably this is why she agreed to talk while most other victims prefer to stay anonymous). But she told how, just two hours after she was operated on in an Israeli hospital, police was coming to arrest her and throw her in the Palestinian Bantustan. She needed the fast intervention of her lawyer to be released.

* * *

The fact that Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, moved from the legal struggle against the law in Israel’s Supreme Court to sponsoring a photo exhibition is a vivid illustration of the failure to defend the most basic Human Rights within the legal framework of Apartheid Israel. The law passed initially in 2003, banning family unification of Israeli citizens with residents of the 1967 occupied territories. It was justified as a temporary “security” measure at the height of the second Intifada. The courts, at the first hearing, had hard time justifying the allowance of such temporary measure of “collective punishment” and wholesale denial of rights to take place.

Since then the law was extended for already ten years and expanded to prevent family unification with citizens of some other Arab countries (and Iran). The security pretext gave way to the openly racist “demographic” motivation. Most Israeli legislators got used to enjoy the political benefit of being openly racist and the courts were packed with more right wingers and settlers and stopped blushing while giving its stamp of approval to openly racist laws.

* * *

The Citizenship Law stands out as a symbol of inhuman cruelty – even among Israel’s long array of racist laws – despite the tough competition. Maybe because the right to family life is such a basic thing that we are all used to take for granted. Forcefully state intervention to separate husband and wife, preventing them from living together with their children – well, any of you can imaging how much it undermines the very basics of human lives.

Another daunting aspect of the law, which was described in detail in the exhibition photos as well as in the stories that we heard at the opening, was the way that the devil of racism settles as a permanent influence in the middle of each home of the “interrupted families” – and there are about 15,000 – 20,000 families directly involved. And the devil is also in the details: Children that can’t visit their grandparents that live a few kilometers away; being forbidden from driving a car; being denied medical treatment. Sometimes the devil of racism enters the victims themselves – we were told of women that suffer from a violent husband but don’t dare to complain – or to run away – as they might be expelled and not allowed to see their children again.

* * *

There was some good news also: As of 2013, even as ethnic cleansing is still the main Israeli goal, it should be easier for people with only temporary entry permit to find a legal job. So medical treatment is still a taboo – it is a clear offence against Israel’s Jewish identity and danger to its Democratic Jewish character – but oiling the wheels of Israeli capitalism is another thing.

* * *

All the speakers in the ceremonial opening failed to give even a glimmer of hope. They tried everything over the last ten years and there is no way to change the law. There is no way that the Jewish state will be democratic (or just human) for other people also.

What they failed to say was the most obvious thing: If the system is uncorrectable it should be abolished and replaced by a better one. In a united democratic free Palestine, everybody will be able to marry his choice of heart and live with the people he chooses. (How come we forgot to write this in the ODS program? Sure only because it is too obvious to need writing…)

One reason why I’m late on my blogging duties is this trip that took me to such cold and remote places like Cleveland and Toronto. There is a lot to write about these places and the people that live there, some of them really wonderful, even though I had hard time to catch up with their strange language and some of the local habits… but this blog is not about travel and seeing places.

As my travel delayed me on my blog writing, today my writings retaliated and delayed me on my travel. I landed in Toronto’s airport at 8:00 pm and passed the first passport control like everybody. But, being from a suspicious 3rd world country, I was directed by the local police to go to another hall where really intelligent Immigration Officers will do the real checking.

As I handed over my passport to the officer, he clicked my name on the computer and apparently found some interesting materials. He read me the long title of some article about the crisis of imperialism and asked me whether I wrote this article. I couldn’t tell him for sure but said it is likely that I did. So, while trying to read fast, he asked me whether I’m a journalist. I said no. “But you write articles?” – Well, yes. “How comes…?” – Well, I mean I’m not a journalist in the sense that nobody pays me to write… “So you just write and publish whenever you can?” – Yes, something like this.

He was trying to read more, so I said: I thought that Canada believes in free speech. “Yes they do. But this is on Palestine. Are you Palestinian?” In what sense do you ask? “Were you born in Palestine?” – Yes, I was born in Palestine. “That makes sense.”

“Are you a member of Abna AlBalad?” Yes I am. But what is the problem about that? “No, only that I never heard about this party.” I wouldn’t expect a Canadian immigration officer to know about all the parties in each country. He smiled.

“Were you ever arrested?” Yes, many times. “Did you commit crimes? Are you going to commit crimes in Canada?” No. I didn’t commit any crime. I was not even convicted of any crime in Israel. “So you were just arrested for demonstrations and such things?” Yes, you know.

“Are you going back to Israel, after all the things that you write…?” Well, these are my positions. They are no secret. I stay there in order to make it a better place.

It is not a simple thing to grasp, even for an intelligent Canadian Immigration Officer. So he asked me to sit in the waiting hall until he will finish his reading and maybe even consult some better informed friends.

I very much enjoy when people show interest in my blog. Somehow in this particular case I wished he will find my writings boring and meaningless.

After some time he let me in. But I was left with the feeling that something is wrong with all this process. It is good that government would mind what people think and say – but it is damned wrong if you will be interrogated about your political activity whenever you travel from one country to another.

My dear reader from the Canadian Immigration Control,

I hope you found this blog interesting and you are invited to continue reading without keeping me on hold.

If you really believe in democracy you should know that what leads to political violence is the repression of legitimate political activity. So, if you find that one of the visitors to Canada is writing against Tyranny and Imperialism, just use the “favorite” key, keep the site and read it later.

From the Arab Gulf to Syria, the Nile Valley and the Arab Maghreb – The People Unite in Solidarity!

At the time that the Arab states turn toward legal, political and economic reforms, pushed by the popular anger against the legal and economic situation that was afflicted on our Arab countries during the past periods by autocratic and repressive regimes, which acted to weaken the Arab peoples, keep them in ignorance and kill all their creative energies in an orderly and systematic way, we find that some states didn’t stop practicing some violations against the Arab activists in their different countries, in spite of the arrival (to the government) of some of the political parties that suffered a lot from the authoritative practices.

This happens while there is still Arab refusal to adopt a decisive stand against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad and his armed gangs, which commit daily massacres against the Syrian people and against the youth, who come out every day in peaceful demonstrations against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.

In Morocco nearly 80 activists from the youth groups, and at their foremost activists from “The 20th of February Movement”, are still held in detention. In Jordan the authorities arrested nearly 18 activists from “The Jordanian Popular Movement” and referred them to the State Security Court, which is a military unconstitutional court. All the activists in Jordan and Morocco are detained for their political views and their demands for reform programs.

In Cairo the Egyptian authorities still use some illegitimate practices against the Egyptian activists who demand some economic reforms and putting an end to the use of military courts against civilians, including demonstrators (Khaled Mekdad, Ahmad Al-Dakroury and Ahmad Manna) and children (Islam Harby and Mohammad Ihab) and the release of the revolution’s officers, which are detained on the order of the former Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi.

In Bahrain the authorities did not stop practicing continuous violations that are incompatible with human rights principles. The military’s influence still costs the lives of civilians. The last case was the killing of a demonstrator, aged 17, in his village South West of the Bahraini capital Manama. He was shot by the security forces and died as a consequence. The security forces also arrested dozens and keep them in detention without bringing them to trial. Dozens of prisoners of conscience and people detained for their political views are still languishing in Bahraini prisons, including Human Rights and political activists, which were arrested because of their demands for political, constitutional and legal reforms.

In Algeria many Human Rights, trade unionist and political activists are subject to detention and judicial harassment.

In Sudan the number of detainees held by the authorities exceeded 1700. The situation was aggravated by the detention of more than 15 Sudanese women. Some of them were released and others are still held under detention in Sudan’s prisons.

We, the undersigned groups, declare our full solidarity with the Syrian people, their right to self determination and their demand for Bashar Al-Assad giving up power. We affirm our support for the initiatives of peaceful struggle in Syria.

We also demand from the authorities in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan and Bahrain to respect Human Rights and the freedom of opinion and expression, to act quickly for the immediate release of all the detained activists and to put an end to all the extraordinary actions taken against them. We also call for the implementation of all the legitimate demands raised by those activists, including legitimate economic, legal and constitutional reforms.

Signatories

Arab movements and parties

6 April Youth Movement – Egypt

The Constitution Party – Egypt

The Egyptian Current Party – Egypt

No to Military Trials – Egypt

The Jordanian Youth Movement – Jordan

I Deserve A Civil Trial – IDACT – Jordan

Girifna Movement – Sudan

The 20th of February Movement – Morocco

ATTAC Morocco association against capitalist globalization

Association of Moroccan Workers in France – France

Independent Youth Movement for Change – Algeria

Syrian Peaceful Movement Group – Syria

“One People One Destiny” Campaign – Syria

Syrian Week – Syria

Demonstration Team – Syria

“Waw Al-Wasel” Group – Syria

The Syrian Democratic Forum – Syria

Youth Against the Settlements – Palestine

Palestinians with the Syrian Revolution – Palestine

Youth and Students sector in The Democratic Progressive Forum Association – Bahrain

Arab National Figures

Engineer Ahmad Maher – member of the Constituent Assembly for the Constitution

MP Ziyad Al-Alimi –member of the former People’s Assembly – Egypt

Khalaf Ali Al-Khalaf – Syrian writer

Rabab Al-Bouti – Syria

Ahmad Lanki – member of the Libyan National Congress

Mohammad Al-Aouni – head of “freedoms of media and change” organization – Morocco

(Free Haifa Note: I made the effort to translate and publish this important declaration within hours after it was published. If you know Arabic, see the original text in Arabic. If there are any suggestions for improved translation please leave a comment or send an email.)